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Monday, May 9, 2011

TOA 2011

This is the third contest of the 2011 french F3F league. 25 pilots met this week-end in Ardèche with sunny weather. For this edition, the organized took us on a new spot. After a 40 minutes’walk, we reached the slope which is a 15m basalt cliff on top of a 45° slope, facing the south. As soon as the wind has been established, we managed 6 rounds in growing conditions, and thermal activities on top. The 2 best times of the competition has been achieved by the 2 juniors ! A magic 33.99s has been flown by Sebastien Lanes who progressed a lot the last few monthes, followed by a 35s by Thomas Faure.

On my side, I started 3 rounds with my Vampire but was not happy of the snap flap settings, so switched to the Ambrosia F3X and won the next round, then flew a 37s and finished by a 42s in crossed wind. The Ambrosia flew very well in EM style. What again surprised me is how it was easy to place the plane where I wanted, following the right path along the edge, with a great stability.

Sunday, we returned to the same slope but the wind decided to not blow enough, so we were unable to do additional rounds. I took the opportunity to work on the Vampire and try to improve the snap flap settings by adding some expo to the elevator in order to have the snap flap acting first, then later the elevator. The result is now much better.

Sébastien Lanes won the competition followed by Mathieu Mervelet and Frederic Hours. I finished fourth with 989 points.

A big thanks to the organizers for this friendly and nice competition, and for all participants for the fun we all shared !

Here is the video of the best flight taken by Sebastien Lanes himself using a contour HD fixed on his head, while piloting. I have also some nice video about other flights that I need to edit.